Collab between Falruza Black and Artemiss-K-Arrow.
Ocs owned by Falruza Black are Dyrax "Aeroshian", Ventrek, and the dragoness Shekklah.
Ocs owned by Artemiss-K-Arrow are the mutant turtle sisters Andromeda, Eos, Nerissa, Daphne, and the dragoness Halcyon Tiamat.
***
"Rebels of the Stars"
Chapter 4 - "Perfect Landing"
Dawn is different to the eyes of one in another world.
Soft, pale blues ran up into the sky, chasing away the blush of peach that lingered still from the nearly-vanished night.
In the wake of the bright, rising moon, large beside the tiny sun which was already peeking over the tops of the beige, sand dunes, silhouettes scattered on the horizon seemed to shimmer like a mirage.
As the sky grew brighter, the shadows revealed themselves to be those of a dark horde and their foreign attacker locked in a red-blooded skirmish.
The attacker among the shadows of barbaric men was built unlike his assailants'. His slender, muscular form and well-built shoulders towered over them, flowing among them, moving as a whirling dervish as he removed them from their lives, one by one, with his unhesitating, fierce cunning.
One of the men got too close.
With a thunderous crack, his skull shattered, his final vision being that of a staff-laden, loin-clothed draconic warrior with furious, wild, amber eyes and dark-jade-colored skin.
Ventrek swept his smooth, obsidian-adorned, metal staff again at another battle-worn, armored man, aiming to castigate him at the kneecap.
At the last second, the man somehow leaped over the staff, dodging quickly to the left, but upon landing, his foot caught in the blown-open torso of a fallen partner, and he too fell. As he went to catch himself, his hand sliding in the slick, bodily remains, the staff came swiftly around into the side of his neck, ending his life.
The other men, only a handful left now, slowly began to circle Ventrek, unsure of how to approach the intimidating and deadly creature. Ventrek's long tail swayed quietly; it's tip brushing the back of his hard, thick calves.
"There will be freedom here today. And the cost will be your lives, slavers.", Ventrek spoke in a low, powerful voice devoid of fear, his medium-length, thick, wild black-cherry red hair blew behind him, long bangs framing his intense glare.
His naturally-plated, blue-clouded-jade torso, covered in blood and sand, heaved as he lifted the ebony staff over his head, locking it in the grip of his cross strap against his bare back.
Upon seeing the fierce-looking weapon seemingly put to rest, the savage men stirred again, murmuring low in braver tones with growing smirks.
Their moment of silence was interrupted, when suddenly the air crackled to life with an electric surge and the sky tore above them. None would dare avert their eyes from the fray to look upwards to the portal rip, except for Ventrek, but he was too late.
With no scream to warn him, Ventrek suddenly crashed to the ground with a loud grunt, the unexpected weight that had landed on his head threatening to collapse his spine.
In his own attempt at recovery, he failed to hear the feminine groans of pain coming from the form of that which had been his downfall. Roughly pushing himself out from under the malleable "boulder", he stumbled for a second, shifting his gaze hazily from the point of impact, which seemed motionless presently, to the enclosing circle of men.
There was one hostile who had not yet been removed from his energy blaster gun, and he slid forward, activating it's core supply as he lifted it's barrel toward Ventrek's head.
Ventrek stood up straight, arms down, suddenly still..or at least, that's what they all thought they perceived a partial-second before the tribal warrior swept up in a forward lunge, and the gunman fell to the earth; his weapon cleaved into three parts - his body in two. The head rolled gruesomely away from its deceased owner a moment later with a sickening sound.
In shock and horror, the men began to back away slowly, some still gripping their blades, others dropping them in surrender.
It took only a breath's time for them to turn and run when they saw Ventrek pull himself back into his previous stance; each hand now holding a long, wickedly curved dagger, glistening with blood.
Ventrek suddenly felt a hand from behind him touch his shoulder and he whirled around, his first blade missing his target, who had somehow dodged it by leaning back and then sent the weapon flying out of his hand with one fast kick to his wrist.
Within the same moment though, fluidly turning his arm around the assailant's body, he threw it easily down to the ground, pinning its limbs with his own; his second blade coming to rest against its throat aiming to slice it once, silencing it forever.
In that sliver of time, he froze...
Beautiful, innocent, and angry bright blue eyes looked up at him from within an exotic frame of dark skin and white hair...
***
___________
"Krim's Bar" Dance Club & Bar - Location: XC4-Onyxian Space Station
___________
Outside of the club, the dance floor's laser light show and energetic music spilled onto the walkway where those standing in the long line waited eagerly to get in.
Traximus approached two extremely tall and blue-feathered bird-like guards at the entrance bowing to them. With his ID in his hand and the respectful gesture made, the invisible barrier at the club's entrance was de-activated for this regular, and highly valued customer. Bidding the mutant turtles to follow him, he waited within the doorway making sure that each of his special guests made it through.
One of the guards turned to check out the back of Andromeda, with an approving glance, as she passed by him wearing her eagle wings.
Raph, sensing it, peered over his shoulder to bark, "Not like I'm disagreeing with you, but show some respect, birdman-"
The guard scowled back and Andromeda put her arm on Raph's shoulder. "Hey, cool it." She shook her head, scoffing at Raph's temper and over-protectiveness.
Grumbling, Raph eyed the guard once more before turning back to his friends. "Just sayin'...", he mumbled, frowning. He hoped that he wasn't gonna see more of that inside...for their sake.
When the last of them passed by him, Traximus nodded to the guard who had had his thumb pressed on a small button in his hand. With that, the button was released and the barrier was active again. A subtle groan could be heard from the patrons in the line who still awaited entrance into the exclusive club.
***
In shock and awe, they stood on the landing beyond the doorway of the entrance, their eyes popping out of their heads. Only Traximus seemed calm, as he had been here numerous times before.
Before them, a black glass-walled club immersed itself in lights of all colors and effects. Directly ahead of them and down a few wide steps, the dance floor moved with an ocean of undulating bodies. To their right, a long bar that seemed to reside within the grasps of a giant octopus spanned from a high ceiling down to the floor.
The energetic dance music enveloping them was amazing, seductive, exotic, and intoxicating.
Surrounding the dance floor were round tables, many occupied and being served by swiftly moving waiters and waitresses. A banister ran around the dance floor as well, assisting the encircling steps in maintaining a border.
The ceiling over the dance floor was the highest of all though. It seemed to dome at the top, though it was hard to see the peek of it in the darkness and light-show. Thick, living vines seemed to have crawled their way down along the ceiling, now frozen in their attempts to reach the patrons below either by some kind of magic, or by the garden maintenance of a more typical kind.
The room flashed, blinding them. Traximus stood in a jaunty pose with a huge grin on his face, watching their expressions as they took it all in. Eos pointed to where the flash of light had come from and they all looked up again at the ceiling walls where a perfect vision of the night sky was now replicated, complete with accentuated constellations, many they had never seen or heard of before.
"Wow.", Donatello breathed finding no other words to describe the brain overload he was experiencing.
"I second that, Donny", Leo nodded, looking out into the crowd, scanning the decor.
Eos' eyes never blinked as she remarked, "It's so...so..."
"BIG!", Mikey blurted in. "I mean like, Massive! This place could hold at least one of your space fleets, eh, Traximus?! Geeehehe!" He wrapped his arm around Daphnes, gripping it with excitement.
"You're sure this is the right place, Traximus?", Nerissa asked with disbelief, idly brushing off imaginary dust from her skirt wrap.
"Oh, my friends, even if it were not, would you dare say that I had taken you to the wrong place?" He shook in a deep rolling chuckle enjoying their reactions.
"Well, I don't care how big it is, or if it's not where we're supposed to be, cuz I'm all over this!" Andromeda rubbed her hands together and swished her hips, taking a step forward toward the dance floor.
"Heh! That's right. Own it!" Raph followed her, equally energized.
Nerissa grinned and started to lead Leo by the hand, following the others.
Eos and Don stood together, smiling in awe of the place, examining each electrical fixture and pointing to the hookups for the light effects, vaguely aware that the others were starting to move.
"The mechanical engineering is brilliant!", Don shouted with his arms up over his head, gesturing to the trusses above and the DJ's spherical alcove where the racks were held.
Eos shouted back with a huge grin, "And do you see how efficiently they wired those...what are they? They look like high end pars of some sort but the casings are so unique like-"
Suddenly the pair of stay-behinds found themselves being dragged forward by Mikey and Daphne.
Daphne teased pleasantly, "What would you two do without us?!"
The flanges of a tri-laser beam, bright green, zipped over their feet and the remainder of the group were now running to catch up with their friends who were already dancing.
With a satisfied grunt, Traximus followed them briefly to shout over the music that he would be getting them a table near the bar. With nods that showed they heard, he then turned and walked back up the shallow steps.
"Claiming a table for a group of thirteen." Traximus spoke into a shiny metal receiver box at the end of the bar counter as he inserted an ID card into the side of it and pressed a few buttons. "Payment accepted. Your table is #143. Registered for 3 hours.", it spoke to him in an androgynous, metallic voice.
"Good.", he spoke to himself and padded his large, muscular saurian body over to the far wall of the club, just at the back end of the bar where their reserved table was. It looked like it just barely might hold his present and soon-to-be-arriving guests.
In under a minute, after seating himself, a waitress approached and asked him if he would like to order anything. "Five Pargononite Sifters and a Surosian liquid protein supplement with a slice of lemon for myself please."
Heh, try saying Pargononite when you're drunk, he laughed to himself.
Tapping his triceraton foot to the beat, he peered over the banister to watch his friends enjoying themselves below on the dance floor. A wave of cobalt blue light, with a water-like effect, washed over his face and he saw Nerissa jump up playfully as it then passed over her as well.
A large, armored figure suddenly stood over him.
"Traximus...", spoke a familiar, deep, rumbling voice.
***
NEXT UP! "Dune Dust" - Halcyon and Ventrek try to come to an understanding before someone gets killed!